1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus having an openable and closable lid detachably mounted to a housing thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there have been proposed electronic apparatuses each having a lid which can be opened and closed by a user, such as a battery lid that covers an opening of a battery compartment formed within a housing. Some electronic apparatuses each having a lid that can open and close a housing thereof permit the lid to be detached from a housing of the apparatus by a special operation different from a normal opening or closing operation.
For example, in an electronic apparatus having a battery compartment in which a larger external power supply than a general-purpose battery can be inserted, when a battery lid is opened and the external power supply is mounted in the battery compartment, a portion of the external power supply protrudes from the battery compartment. This brings about a problem of interference between the battery lid and the external power supply. To avoid this interference, there has been proposed an electronic apparatus having a lid-holding structure that permits the battery lid to be detached from the housing by a battery removing operation before the external power supply is mounted in the battery compartment.
As the electronic apparatus having a lid detachable from an apparatus housing thereof as described above, one described below has been proposed (see e.g. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2008-167374). The electronic apparatus disclosed in this publication has a housing formed with an opening in which the lid is fitted, and the opening has an inner wall thereof formed with at least one pair of holes. The lid has protruding portions protruding from respective sides thereof such that they can be fitted in the respective holes formed in the inner wall of the opening. The holes in the inner wall of the opening of the housing and the protruding portions of the lid are fitted to each other, whereby the lid is engaged with the housing.
One of the protruding portions of the lid can be disengaged from the associated hole by user operation. In a state where the one protruding portion is disengaged, the other protruding portion in engagement with the other hole is used as a support to pivotally move the lid to thereby cause the lid to be lifted, thereby placing the lid in a state having one side thereof floated from the opening of the housing. In this state, the other protruding portion is removed from the hole remaining engaged therewith, whereby the lid is detached. The lid can be mounted to the housing in a sequence reverse to the above-described sequence of operations for detaching the same.
Next, with reference to FIGS. 7A and 7B, a description will be given of a lid-holding structure in which an engaging portion between the housing of an electronic apparatus and a lid of the same serves as a rotary shaft about which the lid pivotally moves to open and close.
FIGS. 7A and 7B are views of the lid and the lid-holding member of a conventional electronic apparatus. FIG. 7A is a perspective view of the lid and the lid-holding member in a separate state, and FIG. 7B is a perspective view of the lid and the lid-holding member in a state in which one end of the lid has been lifted to a position higher than the lid-holding member.
In FIGS. 7A and 7B, the lid 120 has shafts 123a and 120a protruding from respective opposite sides thereof, and the shafts 123a and 120a are caused to be engaged with respective bearing portions 102a and 102b formed in the lid-holding member 102 provided on the housing of the electronic apparatus (see FIG. 7A), whereby the lid 120 is held by the lid-holding member 102. The engagement attaches the lid 120 to the housing of the electronic apparatus. The shafts 123a and 120a of the lid 120 are disposed on the same axis, so that the lid 120 can pivotally move about a line connecting between the respective centers of the shafts 123a and 120a as a rotation axis.
The motion of the shaft 123a of the lid 120 is interlocked with the operation of a shaft-operating member 126, and the shaft 123a can be retracted into the lid 120 by sliding the shaft-operating member 126 sideways as indicated by an arrow (see FIG. 7A). This operation releases the engagement between the shaft 123a and the bearing portion 102a. Further, in the state where the engagement between the shaft 123a and the bearing portion 102a has been released, the lid 120 is lifted using the bearing portion 102b as a support such that one end of the lid 120 becomes higher than the lid-holding member 102 (see FIG. 7B), and then the shaft 120a is disengaged from the bearing portion 102b. Thus, the lid-holding structure enables the lid 120 to be detached from the lid-holding member 102.
To improve the operability of the lid in an opening direction in the above-described conventional electronic apparatus, it is desirable to urge the lid in the opening direction such that it is automatically opened to a predetermined position when the lid is unlocked. In order to urge the lid in the opening direction, it is necessary to bring an urging member acting in the opening direction to be brought into urging contact with the housing and the lid.
However, in the case of the conventional electronic apparatus which has the detachable lid as described above, if the urging member is provided, it becomes necessary to mount the lid to the housing of the electronic apparatus while urging the above-mentioned urging member, which makes it difficult to perform the lid mounting work. Further, if the urging force of the urging member is limited so as to prevent the same from hampering the lid mounting work, it becomes impossible for the urging member to cause the lid to open to a sufficiently wide opening angle.